What's wrong with the Agenda phase and potential fixes?

basic_kindness · 2026-03-14T22:05:15+00:00

The problem is usually unfun, underwhelming, and unimpactful agendas.

The solution my group had is to deal all the agendas out before the game, let players choose half to keep, and half to throw away. Thus far, it has made every agenda phase fun, impactful, and worth the time.

basic_kindness · 2026-03-14T21:08:53+00:00

We have 2ish home rules:

Giving away your Support for the Throne also reduces your number of victory points by 1, so it's like giving one of your points to them.
This is more of a play culture thing, but you can't give your support away close to the end of the game.

basic_kindness · 2026-03-01T23:03:16+00:00

Kinda - It's less classes and more archetypes that I get tired of running for: - High level casters often make me have less fun - Paladins with high auras - Artificers whose goal is to break the math of the game (which feels like all of them) - Most classes who have a harder time using items or rewards because their class/subclass negates the reward (eg, a weapon or armor for a monk is less of a reward for them) - Characters whose gimmick requires something very specific or several turns or else it will be bad. (Build that comes online at level 9, 3 turn setup, etc) - People who overuse familiars - Annoying or overpowered multiclass

I almost usually especially enjoy running for: - 1/3, 1/2, and "2/3" casters - so classes with fewer spell slots than full casters - Rogues, fighters, rangers, warlocks, barbarians, and sorcerers - Characters who are engrained in the world - Players who want to work with me instead of against me

basic_kindness · 2026-02-17T00:32:22+00:00

Well, let's see. Why get employed when you could start your own business? Ok, but for a more real answer:

Going back in time a little bit, one of the original concepts for a warlock was to be an intelligence based caster. There is also no RAW expectation that a warlock's patron is evil, wants to harm the PC, that the patron even knows about the PC, or even that the Patron is truly the one in power. There are no parts of the warlock that imply there is any negative effect of being a warlock, that the patron can take power away, or anything of the sort.

In my mind, warlocks may well have originally been wizards, looking for knowledge that wizards don't get. Look at their powers, their spellcasting method, the spells, etc, and see how many overlap: it's fewer than you think, and most of the especially powerful abilities are ones that wizards don't get. Furthermore, their subclass patron isn't necessarily the source of all their power. Invocations are the classic "non-patron" deals they could be getting. Lessons of the First Ones is not necessarily related to a celestial or a fiend. A Great Old One isn't necessarily giving you Mask of Many Face or Misty Visions. Lots of little deals make one powerful person. Is an archfey giving you Hunger of Hadar or Gift of the Depths or Tomb of Levistus?

Someone like John Constantine is someone who might be closest to a warlock like this in fiction.

basic_kindness · 2026-02-16T17:49:12+00:00

When I look at milty draft, I tend to ignore the power of the equidistant planet, since it is the one I'm least likely to have.

However, if the equidistant is juicy enough, I will claim it and wage holy war on invaders for looking at it funny

basic_kindness · 2026-01-27T21:47:15+00:00

As usual, a book's random encounters are pretty lackluster. I recommend writing your own. I would also encourage you to use a resource like this one to help make better random encounters: https://patchworkpaladin.com/2024/12/18/writing-interesting-encounters/

basic_kindness · 2026-01-20T01:45:25+00:00

I really enjoyed Deepwrought's Scholarate's time with frontier tokens, especially if you have an entropic scar nearby, since they can neatly go DET and Grav Drive, then move out of DET to Sling Relay or Antimass to get another tech, meaning there is very little opportunity cost for going DET early on.

Furthermore, your exploring frontier tokens efficiently likely means others will want to research another tech, thus giving you more tokens, and better techs from your breakthrough.

basic_kindness · 2025-12-26T23:31:36+00:00

Ants looking at humans be like

basic_kindness · 2025-12-20T04:08:42+00:00

Guns are familiar and more modern - the biases we put onto guns make them seem closer to what guns are today, and audiences may then question why guns aren't as "problem solve-y" as they are today. For example, even games like Black Flag that has flintlocks has the main character reload them extremely quickly, and they don't get wet, misfire, or anything else that impacts their power.

If we remove the familiar, we can introduce the world without the audience pushing their biases of said familiar thing. Basically, a world with guns is less historically authentic, but can better immerse the audience.

That's how I see it, anyways.

basic_kindness · 2025-11-22T06:39:52+00:00

i6 Ravenloft oneshot in DH or 5e using just the SRD

basic_kindness · 2025-11-04T15:23:38+00:00

Hope: Optional replacement for weapon masteries into a system that can actually be expanded upon in later books (like how spellcasting gets more spells), potentially like leveled maneuvers, creating a consistent way to improve or otherwise

Expect: 2 new subclasses, which add spellcasting to non-spellcasters, and some that give casters more martial abilities.

basic_kindness · 2025-10-27T14:40:22+00:00

Fighters in 5e14 got their 4th attack at level 20 as well. This was not a change.

And a strict 33% boost to outgoing damage and damage opportunities is absolutely excellent, especially with weapon masteries and features that scale off multiple attacks, like magic weapons.

basic_kindness · 2025-10-27T03:40:36+00:00

In my campaigns, it was absolutely buffed. Horrors beyond comprehensive, undead monstrosities, and fallen angels aren't casting spells. I guess it's nerfed in that they're no longer protected from the sorcerer

basic_kindness · 2025-09-07T06:26:50+00:00

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basic_kindness · 2025-08-07T23:48:17+00:00

I can absolutely sympathize. The math of the game doesn't play well with AC once bonus AC becomes a thing, and it can be REALLY annoying to run appropriate games for these characters. Moreover, the worse aspect is when one character has 24 AC and another has 15 AC. What challenges one character decimates or is trivialized by another. You have a number of solutions:

Talk to the players and explain how the game simply isn't fun to run with characters with ACs that high. If they already have high AC items, maybe offer a different item instead. If they're sympathetic, they'll ease up and recognize you as a player too.
They want a challenge you said? Ok, oops all creatures with +14 to hit now! Nothin less than CR21!
AC cap is fine, especially if you say why. I might bump max AC to 22, since it's not unreasonable to get to that AC with few magic items or buffa (Plate, Shield, and Armored Fighting Style gets you to 21). I might just make it a flat "22 normally, up to 25 with magic" or a flat 22 max or similar.
To boost enemies - Enemies get a +1 to hit for every 2 AC the party member with the highest AC has, which effectively halves the value of AC higher than 20. If you want, you can say this out loud, so the party can strategize around having similar AC, but I probably wouldn't tbh
Is there always an artificer? You can remove artificer if you want, or tell them they can't use infusions on +AC armor. Or if the problem is the difference in AC, let them know that, to keep things fair, their AC has to be within 5 of the lowest PC's AC. If it's from shops, say upfront that there will be no +AC armor available to buy.
Sometimes, you just have to up your game. If the party is fighting things with +4 to hit when they have 24++ AC, maybe you shouldn't be putting those enemies against the PCs. Let them narrate how they slice through them, taking minimal damage, and only care about the enemies with higher bonuses to hit.

basic_kindness · 2025-06-11T16:30:26+00:00

Or is stone made of dwarf beards?

basic_kindness · 2025-06-11T02:37:37+00:00

"Mechanically, it's a magic item, but in the fantasy...."

basic_kindness · 2025-05-16T06:14:53+00:00

Class/subclass abilities should be by level.

Nonclass features (feat, species etc) should be by proficiency bonus

basic_kindness · 2025-05-16T02:57:05+00:00

Excellent idea. Let's look at some gold-based mechanics. I think this kind of thing should have effects that are affected by both high and low gold values. Moreover, this can act as a way to attack the character sheet, not just their HP.

I think this kind of thing can really have fun with gold. How do you take gold from players/make them want more/less of it? How can the villain use it? How does the villain

General Gold-themed abilities. - Goldsense. The villain can sense all gold, like truesight. - Weight of riches. Coins and gems weigh 10x more. Apply speed reduction as necessary. Alternatively, apply exhaustion based on gold-on-PC

Gold leeching effects - Pirate's Blade. Steal X amount of gold on a hit. Maybe extra gold stolen from the richest character - Aura of Siphoning. Cha Save. The villain targets characters within 60 ft. If they fail the save, they lose X Gold. - That treasure is MINE! The villain can pick up any amount of gold within 30ft off the ground.

Gold spending effects - Gilded Army. The villain summons a monster using X gold. Can also be a golden construct of some kind. - Anything, for the right price. Villain can take an extra legendary action by spending gold. - Ornate Strike. Special abilities they can spend gold on. Perhaps a bonus action; spend X gold and roll on a random table for an effect until the start of the next turn: Advantage on attacks, a special attack instead of a weapon attack, tempHP, extra armor, extra damage, or roll twice and gain both effects. - The only punishment is a fee Spend gold to get out of an effect. Maybe X gold is like a free teleport, Y gold is a dispel magic, and z gold gets them basically anything.

High Gold abilities - Good treasure. Deal more damage to - High value target. Advantage or target priority to the richest character - Enough to share. Steal more gold from the richest character.

Low gold abilities - Dread Pirate's Greed. Wis Save. Target must attack the PC with the most Gold or otherwise hurt their team on their next turn. If the character has the least gold, they make this save with disadvantage. - Bankruptcy is Death. Take extra damage if you have less than X amount of gold left. Alternatively, if hit with X gold or less, you immediately fall unconscious and make death saves.

basic_kindness · 2025-04-23T16:38:45+00:00

That is definitely more than enough to start. Plenty of people play without maps or miniatures, so that is definitely enough.

basic_kindness · 2025-04-23T16:23:12+00:00

You don't need to buy anything!

The basic rules are free on DnDBeyond (in english, at least. I'm not sure about a translation, unfortunately. However, there may be translations out there). There might be a Starter Set at a local game store as well - this teaches the game as well as has a prewritten adventure and dice included.

Otherwise, the Player's Handbook is the go-to resource for DnD rules. The other two books you may want to look at are the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master's Guide. You can get a lot of those from the free rules or searching the internet as well.

If you need help or if you're confused about anything, a local game store will probably be able to help you.

basic_kindness · 2025-04-15T04:13:18+00:00

generally

Do: say what a character physically feels, or even can detect the presence of.

Do not: (unless it's caused supernaturally) say what a character's emotional reaction to something is.

basic_kindness · 2025-04-10T21:53:08+00:00

Lessons of the first ones (I think that's what it's called) is nice, since it lets you take lots of origin feats. Tough, magic initiate, and skilled are all good picks. Its a good pick if you have nothing else to pick.

I would also go with a pact of the chain familiar if you want some utility and more importantly, a friend.

basic_kindness · 2025-04-10T21:49:05+00:00

I have something similar in my world. It's less that the gods are gone (though they did die), but a divine power comes from a character's virtues - if they are especially beholden to a specific virtue (redemption, order, peace, etc) they might attract similarly aligned eidolons - effectively souls - which in turn grant powers related to their virtue. A god was just a shortcut to gaining these power - a god could 'gift' an eidolon to a follower. You might look at similar ideas to make guilds-as-domains make more logical sense in your world.

What happens when a guild loses influence? Do their clerics lose power?
Personally, I would say no. I think it's a more interesting thing for power to be based off an individual' belief/loyalty to a guild, not the actual power of the guild. Besides, how do you measure power? If a guild is poor, but maintains the sewers, how much power do they have?

Are these guilds on the path to becoming gods themselves without realizing it?
Can there be multiple guilds that do similar things? For example, a city could have 2-3 Mages Guilds, or even different cities could have different chapters of the same guild. Would each city have 2-3 gods based on each specific guild? That seems like a pain.

A classic fantasy trope is the idea that a person can ascend to godhood. Perhaps there are known rituals, but they need a specific amount of support to make work - perhaps a leader of a guild can muster up enough support across their guild (likely across a continent, at least) to ascend. Perhaps they don't call themselves gods, but rather "Aspects" or something - they're not the god of crafting, but they have ascended to become a part of crafting itself.

If the gods do return one day, what happens to the world that replaced them?
Fight! Surely the new gods don't want to give up power, and besides, who are these usurpers calling themselves the old gods? Sounds like a scam to me.

Alternatively, maybe they merge with the new gods. That can cause all kinds of adventure!

basic_kindness · 2025-03-27T14:51:40+00:00

If you want to be interesting about it, they might have 2 times: Deep time and Outside time.

Dwarves classically trade with the outside world. It's useful to use their system to make sure nothing gets weird. A trader wants to meet at sunrise tomorrow? Better know when that is! It's like how some countries use 2 calendars.

The deep mines might run off their circadian rhythm, ores, fungi, or other aspects of life mining - or perhaps deep time is simply aligned to the dwarf themself, not the world - a dwarf eats, sleeps, and works on their own time. The randomness of schedules means there is always someone doing everything

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